Bowcat's Meng 1/48 F/A-18E Super Hornet - Top Gun: Maverick

[Mr Bowcat]

Morning all.

Pressed on with the painting this weekend. I'm black basing, which I like to do for grey aircraft, so first up was mottling.





Then top coat and the black bit at the top, which took forever to mask symmetrically.





Decals next.

[Mickc1440]

Really nice paint job Bob

[Jim R]

That is a quality paint job Bob. That mottling preshade is effective.

[Mr Bowcat]

Cheers gents.

Jim, the additional spray booth was a godsend for this, so much more space to spray in. :thumb2:

[Mr Bowcat]

Morning all.

I've spent the last few modelling sessions applying decals, ~243 of them. :disappointed2:

All done now, so will get everything glossed in preparation for weathering. I'm not going too heavy with this, the aircraft in the film were relatively clean.

[Jim R]

Looking good with the decals on. Must have required plenty of patience. You're right to keep the weathering light, the film's planes were "well kept" if memory serves.

[Mr Bowcat]

Morning all. :smiling3:

Did the first stage of weathering over the weekend, which consisted of a Grime clay wash. Most of it was taken off, just enough to highlight the detail and leave a slightly dusty, worn look over the airframe. The film is partly set at Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada, and the aircraft in this colour scheme is used for instruction, so looks to have been kept in generally very good condition. I also added a little black panel liner into the grilles.



I'm going to follow this up with a little bit of localised oil streaking, but again this will be kept minimal in keeping with the film.

[Mark1]

Thats looking good.

[Jim R]

Really nice look you've achieved Bob.

[Steve Brodie]

Thats looking very sweet

[Mr Bowcat]

Cheers guys.

[Mickc1440]

Really nice work, subtle and realistic

[Mr Bowcat]

Cheers Mick.

[Mr Bowcat]

Morning guys.

Got back onto this over the weekend. It's probably hard to see from the photo's but I've added a few streaks with oils. As mentioned above, I'm not wanting to dirty this up too much so it's all quite subtle. Once this was dry I went over with a matt coat.







It's now pretty much ready for final assembly, I just have to paint some nav lights on and get a base sorted.

[Guest]

First sorry for missing the start Bob, looks quite a size sitting in the booth .
Good you were able to do that repair, like Jakko said if you hadn't pointed it out many wouldn't have noticed .
Lovely detail, esp with the mottling.
Unfortunately I've not seen the film !!!!!!